Lay Cooperation in Canada: Catholic and Mainline and Conservative Protestant Attitudes toward Interdenominational Cooperation

In 1530, Reformers presented their criticisms of church to Catholic authorities in form of Augsburg Confession, foundational document for Lutherans worldwide. Central to this document was disagreement over doctrine of justification. For nearly five centuries, Lutherans and Catholics have viewed each other with suspicion, at best, with no efforts at reconciliation. Not until 1963, when Pope John XXIII initiated Vatican II, did efforts toward rapprochement begin in earnest. After more than thirty years of dialogue, on Reformation Sunday, October 31, 1999, in Augsburg, Germany, Vatican and Lutheran World Federation officials signed historic Joint Declaration on Doctrine of Justification. Refusing to sign declaration was conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, whose leader, Reverend A. L. Barry, called signing the latest example of Lutherans sacrificing God's truth on altar of unity. (1) The historic signing of Joint Declaration is one of many conciliatory efforts by North American mainline Protestants and Catholics near turn of twenty-first century. Canadian Anglicans have sought reconciliation with Canadian aboriginals, even as lawsuits from past abuses in church-sponsored aboriginal schools threaten to cripple church financially. (2) The Consultation on Church Union's forty-year effort to promote unity among nine U.S. denominations has resulted in creation of Churches Uniting in Christ, inaugurated on January 21, 2002, in Memphis, Tennessee. Standing on spot where Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, denominational officials signed a document committing themselves to working and worshiping closer together and to ending racism. (3) With increased Catholic inclusivity since Vatican II (1962-65) and resulting creation of Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs in 1964, (4) Catholics have initiated ecumenical dialogue with Orthodox and with mainline and conservative Protestant Christians. (5) The Vatican's efforts seemed to gain momentum as new millennium approached. In addition to ecumenical Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adventiente, Pope John Paul II promulgated encyclical Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One) in 1995, encouraging renewed ecumenical efforts. In his last years, pope resolved to seek reconciliation and forgiveness for past wrongs committed by Roman Catholic Church, traveling to Jerusalem and elsewhere to make amends despite his frail health. (6) Just as Missouri-Synod Lutherans reject Joint Declaration, so conservative Protestants have historically been resistant to, though not uninvolved in, rapprochement efforts with mainline Protestants and Catholic Christians. (7) Conciliatory efforts by conservative Protestant elites, however, are numerous of late. In Canada, evangelical groups are seeking reconciliation with Jewish Canadians (8) and aboriginals, (9) while in U.S. Pentecostals and Baptists have pursued reconciliation, particularly between Blacks and Whites. (10) Former leaders of national evangelical coalitions--the National Association of Evangelicals' Kevin Mannoia (11) and Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Gary Walsh (12)--are promoting reconciliation and unity across religious, racial, and gender lines. With obvious exceptions, rhetoric of evangelical elites seems more conciliatory now than even a decade ago. Even Jerry Falwell's once vicious vilification of homosexuality seems more irenic. (13) In spite of this recent ecumenical and cooperative activity, most commentators in 1970's and 1980's argued that local, national and international interest in ecumenism has declined sharply since an upsurge in 1960's. (14) Mainline Protestant survey respondents in U.S., for example, agree that ecumenism is important but give it low priority, placing more importance on intra-congregational agendas. (15) Kelly calls religious civility in pluralistic societies folk ecumenism. …

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